


Excavation

by regenderate



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-02-07 15:48:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21460540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/regenderate/pseuds/regenderate
Summary: The Doctor gets a message on her psychic paper. On a faraway planet, an old friend is hurt. The Doctor does what she can to help.(2019 public call for chamilet)
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/River Song
Comments: 10
Kudos: 130
Collections: Public Call - Doctor Who fic exchange 2019





	Excavation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chamilet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chamilet/gifts).

> Hi! I hope you like this-- you got unlucky with me because I tend to not be comfortable with NSFW stuff or anything super intense, so I tried my hand at some hurt/comfort, and hopefully it works! :-) I enjoyed writing it, I don't write nearly enough thirteen/River.

It started like so many things did: a call for help, etched into psychic paper.

_I need you._

The Doctor looked at her fam, gathered around the console, and then back down at the paper.

_I need you._

The handwriting was familiar, although the Doctor couldn’t quite place it. Still, the statement spoke for itself. It wasn’t a generic help message, it wasn’t a cry into the void; it was vague, but specific in its audience. You. The Doctor could only think of a few people who would know how to contact her that way.

“Right then,” she said to the others. Fortunately, they had just landed in Sheffield. “Can’t come round for tea today, I’m afraid, I’ve got some things to take care of. Be back here tomorrow?”

“’Course,” Ryan said.

And Ryan, Yaz, and Graham said their goodbyes and left the TARDIS, already making plans for tea. As soon as they were gone, the Doctor focused on her paper.

_I need you._

The message had to be coming from somewhere. But psychic paper was tricky, and the Doctor tended to travel all over time and space— the connection could reach thousands of years into the future or the past, or it could come from a faraway star system, or it could be from another time traveler, and if that was the case there was no telling where they were now. 

She scanned the paper with her sonic. The connection was there, beamed through the TARDIS into the paper. 

So the TARDIS could track it.

The Doctor leapt into action. She slapped the psychic paper down onto the TARDIS console and, flinging levers and stabbing at buttons, managed to track the signal. As she watched the monitor splashed across the far wall, the psychic paper’s signal took the TARDIS and the Doctor to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, and the TARDIS landed on a tiny mining planet, flung out on a far-reaching arm of the Milky Way.

“Now, who could need me here?” the Doctor muttered to herself. She looked at the psychic paper again, but the message was gone. With a shrug, she pocketed it. She was never one to avoid a mystery.

She strode out of the TARDIS onto a rocky plain. She didn’t see anybody at all, much less someone who might have left a mysterious message on her psychic paper, but a trip wasn’t worth taking if there wasn’t a bit of an adventure involved, so she walked in a wide circle around the TARDIS, looking for any sign of a civilization while she scanned the area with her sonic. She couldn’t see anything, but the sonic detected traces of heat almost directly below her and some sort of electronic device a few yards away.

_Brilliant_.

She moved in the direction of the electronics. Their buzz led her to a flatter, paler patch of rock, and another scan revealed a hidden trapdoor. With help from the sonic, the Doctor kicked it in, revealing a hole in the ground; without another thought, she jumped in. Her feet hit hard concrete, and she straightened up and held out her sonic like a flashlight. She was at one end of a smooth stone passageway, and the orange glow of her sonic illuminated some of the path ahead, but she couldn’t see much more than a few feet in front of her— if she remembered properly, the heat signals she’d found before were just a bit further than that.

She stepped forward with caution. She still didn’t know who had sent her the message; it could be an old enemy, or it could be a friend. She still couldn’t place the handwriting, but that didn’t mean much— lots of those little instinctive memories didn’t make it through from regeneration to regeneration. Either way, this was an unfamiliar planet, and there was clearly some kind of danger, it was worth being a bit more careful than she might otherwise have been.

She kept walking until she saw a huge pile of rocks against a wall. It took another moment and two more steps for her to realize that there was a figure trapped underneath the rocks, and two more steps for her to see the mass of curls attached to said figure. Swinging her screwdriver towards the ceiling, she could see a ragged hole where the rocks had been.

She took another step towards the pile.

“River?” she asked.

The pile of rocks shifted slightly. 

The Doctor rushed to the wall. 

“River?” she asked again. “Was it you? Did you send me that message?”

“Doctor?” River’s voice asked, but it was weak— much weaker than River would usually let the Doctor hear.

“It’s me,” the Doctor said, huddling over River. Her head was turned away, and the light of the sonic made her curls seem gold; the Doctor couldn’t see her face. “River, what happened?”

“Archaeology,” River panted. Her voice was strained with pain.

“Oh, River,” the Doctor said. “Let’s get you out of here.” She stepped back to look at the situation. Some of the boulders on top would be easy enough to move— but then she was going to have to get River out without hurting her more. 

Well. She had to start somewhere. 

“Don’t move,” she cautioned River. “I don’t know if you hurt your spine.”

She started moving some of the looser stones one at a time, pushing them to the other side of the passageway. Slowly, she freed River’s head, and then, hefting a couple boulders to the side, revealed her arms and torso. River’s jacket was ripped, a few bloody scrapes on her arms, but there weren’t any critical wounds— it helped, really, that the Doctor had already seen River die, and knew that this wasn’t it. It was a little harder to get to her legs, but the Doctor managed it, eventually toppling a whole pile. River was wearing loose pants, so the Doctor couldn’t really see whether her legs were injured, but she wasn’t about to do a full medical examination here in this dark passage. 

“Stay here,” she told River. River just looked up at her, her face shiny with sweat. The Doctor hesitated, bent down and kissed the top of River’s head, and then ran to the entrance of the passageway and onto the surface of the planet to where her TARDIS sat. It only took a moment to set the coordinates, and then the engines started their grind, and River slowly appeared in the console room, slumped against one of the crystals. 

“Right, then,” the Doctor said. She knelt by River’s side. “Can you hear me?”

River nodded. 

“I’m just going to give you a scan,” the Doctor said, straightening up and going to the console. She pressed a few buttons, and then a diagram of a body showed up on the monitor. It showed slight abrasions to the arms and breaks in a few parts of the legs, but no spine injuries, which was good, and meant the Doctor could try and move River to the actual medical bay. She turned back to River.

“Can I pick you up?” she asked.

River seemed to get a little of her normal spark back with that— she looked at the Doctor and said, “I don’t know. Think you’re strong enough?”

The Doctor rolled her eyes. 

“Come on, then,” she said. She bent down and picked River up bridal style. River grunted in pain, but she curled into the Doctor’s chest, and the Doctor held her as carefully as she could, keeping River’s warmth as close as possible. The TARDIS, as kind as ever, moved the medical bay close, so it didn’t take long to get there. The door slid open, and the Doctor brought River in and lowered her onto the nearest bed. 

It was time to get to work.

Fortunately, the TARDIS could at least help with most of the work— it started with a painkiller through an IV, and then the Doctor had to splint River’s legs. 

“Sorry,” she said, and she cut down the legs of River’s pants with scissors, letting the fabric fall open to either side. She almost gasped at what she saw: she had seen the breaks on the diagram, but it hadn’t prepared her for this. River’s thighs and shins were absolutely covered in bruises, stained shades of purple. 

“You’re not going to be able to move much for a bit,” the Doctor said. “You’re going to have to stay with me.”

River seemed to have regained some of herself with the painkillers— she looked up at the Doctor and said, “I can certainly think of worse fates.” To her absolute mortification, the Doctor blushed.

“Yes, well,” she said, “let’s get you splinted up.”

An hour later, River’s legs were bound in bandages and metal, and she was moving in and out of sleep on the medical bay bed. The Doctor was sitting next to her, trying to figure out what to do next. She had never actually seen River like this, in the whole time they’d been married— River had always been calm and collected, even when she was imprisoned. 

The Doctor looked at River’s sleeping face. In some ways, this was the only face of River’s that the Doctor knew she could trust— the only face that told the absolute truth of how River was doing. Right now, it was calm. The painkillers had done their work, and River seemed completely tranquil.

As the Doctor watched, River’s eyes fluttered open. She turned her head, saw the Doctor, and smiled.

“Hello, sweetie,” she said. “Come here often?”

“Not really,” the Doctor said. “How are you feeling?”

“All the better for seeing you,” River said. “What did you give me?”

The Doctor waved a hand.

“It’s just what the TARDIS has on hand,” she said. 

“Well, it’s magical,” River said. “And by the way, I love your new face.”

“Thanks,” the Doctor said. “It’s not the worst I’ve had.”

“I do miss the bow tie,” River said.

The Doctor fidgeted with her nails.

“So,” she said, “how did you get here?”

“Archaeology,” River said, just like she had earlier. 

“Care to explain further?” the Doctor asked.

River sighed.

“I was excavating that tunnel,” she said. “Should’ve been safe, it’s an old mining tunnel, just the people who used to live here have been gone for ages. I was looking at a painting on the wall, and all of a sudden, I was on the ground.” She turned her gaze back towards the ceiling. “I wouldn’t have bothered you about it, but I didn’t have anyone else to call.”

“You can always bother me,” the Doctor said. The words came out before she could even think to stop them. “Really. I’ve missed you.”

“How long has it been?” River asked.

The Doctor stopped to think.

“Since the last time I saw you?” she asked. 

“Sure,” River said. 

“Not so long,” the Doctor said. “Few hundred years.”

“You’re older,” River noted, and then the Doctor remembered how young River had been once.

“Where are you?” she asked. “In your timeline?”

“We just lost Mum and Dad,” River said. 

The Doctor let out a breath.

“Amy and Rory,” she said. “With the angels.”

“It’s been fifty years for me,” River said. “But that’s the last time I saw you.”

So she wasn’t so young now. 

“I miss them,” the Doctor said.

“You admit that sort of thing now,” River noted. “You never do. The you I know, anyway.”

“I’ve grown,” the Doctor said. “Lost a lot. Gained a lot. Learned. You know. Life’ll change you.”

River reached out a hand towards the Doctor. The Doctor took it, running her thumb over River’s skin. 

“How many have you lost?” River asked.

“Too many,” the Doctor said, thinking about Grace, and Bill, and General Cicero. “More than I needed to.”

“You always think that,” River said. 

“It’s always true,” the Doctor countered. 

“Not always,” River said. “Didn’t lose anyone today.”

The Doctor smiled. She lifted River’s hand and brushed a kiss to her knuckles.

“No,” she said. “Today I found you again.”

River stayed in the TARDIS for two more weeks before she healed, and then two weeks after that. They didn’t talk again about the past, or the future, or anything to do with the people they’d lost. Instead, they spent time together, in every sense of the word— talking, cuddling, kissing.

Once River healed, they went on a few adventures— the simplest possible trips, to a carnival on Earth, to see a movie on Mars. Nothing big, just fun. The Doctor was pleased to discover that she got along just as well with River as she always had, and River seemed delighted with every new thing she learned about this version of the Doctor.

“I didn’t realize you were a cuddler,” River said, the first time the Doctor got into bed with her just so she could rest her head on River’s chest.

“Get used to it,” the Doctor said, her voice muffled.

And then later, when the Doctor proclaimed her love for River in the TARDIS console room—

“You really are better with emotions.”

“When I want to be,” the Doctor agreed. "You should've seen the body before this one, though. Or, I suppose you will do, eventually."

"I can't wait," River purred.

Finally, River had to go. She had people to report to, duties to fulfill, and even time travel couldn’t keep her away from those forever.

“Or else they might not let me excavate anymore,” she explained. “I’d have to do it illegally.” From her smile, the Doctor could tell that River would happily do it illegally, but of course if she was reputable she got access to the best digs before anyone else.

“See you again?” she asked as she dropped River off. 

“You can count on it,” River said, and she left with a kiss that lingered on the Doctor’s lips long after. 

Back in Sheffield the next day, Ryan asked, “Hey, where’d you go? You look proper bouncy.”

“Oh, you know,” the Doctor said with a grin. “It’s always nice to see old friends.”


End file.
